Transcendent Gene-Chapter 297: Final Truth [5]

The right path made its shift soon after he chose it.

Gio once again found himself in the role of a worker at Verita’s Nest. He didn’t seem to be the same person as before, but he also didn’t seem to have a higher position in any way.

He started around researchers.

"I heard they’re starting fights with the government. Is that okay?"

"It’s not just that. You know those new people? The ones calling themselves Supers? They want to go against them, too."

"It’s not going against them. It’s more like control. Aren’t we the ones helping them control their powers? I think it’s in our right to say something about it."

"Yeah, but the moment they started saying we should have an official name for them instead of letting them call themselves whatever they want, it became a problem."

"Sequencers, right? It’s not even that bad..."

Around such conversations, he was questioned on whether he wanted to stay with Vita or leave.

There were offers coming at him from every direction. Every scientist and researcher with even an inkling of importance within the Nest was being swamped with gifts and sweet whispers from other organizations.

They didn’t care about the talent or skill level of the researchers themselves.

They only cared about the information on Vita that they could secure.

Gio chose to stay with the company through its darkest times, finding his role within everything increasing with the passing of time.

"This won’t do."

By the fourth choice on the right path, he was in circles that decided the fate of the company as a whole.

He was sitting at a table with the very board of executives and CEOs who controlled it all.

"Within all this chaos, they still find ways to barter with political power. How many countries are there left in this world?"

"Seventy-two. Of them, seventy are willing to accept our deal."

"The issue is that the last seven are the ones who matter."

The seventy countries that bowed to them were those who would collapse without Vita’s aid. They happily allowed the organization to do as it pleased and help their citizens.

The last seven weren’t all dissenting voices. Only three of them were truly standing against the Nest. The other four were merely staying on the fence until the largest of them made their decisions known.

"The three absolute powers of this world refuse to even compromise. We aren’t asking for full control. All we want is autonomy. Has that been made clear to them?"

"It has, but it doesn’t matter. They want a say in how we operate, and without it, they refuse to allow us to act within their borders."

There were two CEOs in charge of Verita’s Nest. Both of them were present in the meeting and conversing, but their personalities were very different.

One had raven hair and a dark complexion. He kept his face stoic for almost the entire meeting, only breaking his icy look when he had something to say.

The other man had brown hair and fierce green eyes that practically reeked of soul when he spoke. His passion and emotion could be felt from every word. He even stood up and slammed the table on several occasions while getting his point across.

When a man like that sat down and took a breath to calm himself, it was obvious that something big was happening.

"We have no choice," he said with a deep frown.

"We have to topple them."

Without an ounce of comedy in his voice, he declared the destruction of some of the world’s former top powers.

As a member of the board of executives, Gio had to vote on the proposal and decide if it would be executed.

’He isn’t necessarily calling for slaughter. He wants to topple those governments and replace them with more amicable ones. If that leads to deaths, they’re necessary sacrifices, but obviously there’s no intention to target areas where civilians would be present.’

Was it worth enacting some evils and using more forceful tactics?

Vita was the world’s savior, but they weren’t free of darkness. They wanted the survival and evolution of humanity as a whole. If that meant certain humans or human powers had to be eradicated, they didn’t mind playing executioner.

And Gio, who came back from the future with a similar mission, was not going to be the one to disagree.

’If I had the power to topple the federation armies and turn them into more of what the Gehenna Army is, I’d do it in a heartbeat.’

The Gehenna Army was made up of people from Earth, Venus, and Mars who fought against threats that concerned the Gehenna Complex as a whole.

Of all the world’s current organizations and armies, they were the only ones Gio could confidently call untouched by corruption,

’Even Arcadia’s Stratum Defense Force is corrupted. The federation armies they draw troops from aren’t any better.’

Elysium’s military had the appearance of an angelic force, but that was the end of it.

’If someone who has the power to clean it up and mitigate the consequences, I’m behind them nine times out of ten.’

The tenth scenario was only the most absurd case scenario that Gio couldn’t account for.

One by one, Verita’s Nest’s struggles were displayed to Gio.

They had to go against the governments of every Stratum to keep their autonomy. After making so many enemies, they had to climb for a long time before reaching a stable position.

They were antagonized by the very Sequencers they helped create and grow. They, who grew to become the majority of humanity, formed groups that tried to stand against the absoluteness of Vita.

They were still humanity’s best fighters, so they had to be quelled without the use of extreme violence.

Even when they reached the top of the world, they had to worry about sourcing their funds and keeping their selfless ideals even as their leadership changed hands and new researchers filled their halls.

And eventually, when the funds they gained through sponsors and the release of consumer goods weren’t enough to fund their research, they had to become involved with less legal or ethical industries.

Nobody knew this history. The history and existence of Verita’s Nest itself were mostly a mystery and only substantiated by broad claims and some minor data points.

This history and this growth was something nobody who didn’t live through the era knew.

Gio became a part of that history. He had to make the same choices that Verita’s Nest had to make in the past.

’If I think about it logically, they probably chose a lot of the same options as me when they went through this.’

Gio wasn’t put off by Vita’s history. The fact that it operated in a moral grey area actually gave him more respect for its leaders.

’Because a stance of absolute good doesn’t work in a world like this one.’

He felt that he’d need to make similar dark choices in the future. He’d need to prioritize humanity as a whole over the few sometimes...

’...and sometimes, I’ll have to prioritize the few over humanity.’

His own path was one that had never been traversed before, but Vita found itself in similar positions many times.

If anything, seeing their true, blemished history made him feel more validated.

’I wish I could’ve seen more.’

When Vita finally solidified itself at the top, the path’s illusions came to an end, and Gio was presented with another crossroads.

’I want to know about how it fell, because after watching it rise...the foundation they built wasn’t one that could be toppled by any normal means.’

He frowned as he chose a different path forward and continued through the maze.

’I didn’t realize how important Vita was when we first got here. Now it’s looking like they’re the key to this entire scenario.’

They were only able to hack it because they had a link, as far as Gio was aware.

’I have no idea what kind of technology makes something like this possible, but it was still created by a human.’

"Hmm..."

Gio shook his head and refocused his attention on the path ahead.

’I’ve been following my heart as the prompt suggested. There isn’t a single choice I made in the illusions that I wouldn’t make in reality...’

Still, he didn’t know what the purpose of these illusions was.

He didn’t know what kind of story they wanted to tell, and when his next path made its shift, his confusion only deepened.

After all...

"The Nest is up to some crazy shit. I heard they want to shut us down?"

"This is why you need to stop listening to fake news, idiot. We’re like the only ones they don’t want to shut down."

"Ohhhh...!"

He looked around the barracks in confusion and tried to understand where he was. Evidently, he was part of some sort of military, but which one?

’Aha.’

The answer came in the form of a logo that had only gone through the most minor changes in the past four hundred or so years.

The next path he chose followed the Gehenna Army in its infancy. 𝓯𝙧𝙚𝒆𝙬𝙚𝒃𝙣𝙤𝒗𝓮𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

There were more stories to be told, and it was Gio’s duty to bear witness to them.

All the way until he reached the end of this labyrinth.